Opposition politician who urged to kill Czech President Zeman expelled

Prague, Czech Republic – On Wednesday, the Czech Civic Democratic Party (ODS) decided to expel Martin Lang following his comments calling to kill President Milos Zeman.

According to party spokeswoman Jana Havelkova, M. Lang’s statements urging to kill President Zeman constituted a “serious violation” of the rules of the opposition party, prompting the ODS leadership to vote in favour of his expulsion.

In April, Martin Lang, a municipal councilor from Jesenice, in the western suburbs of Prague, posted a message on Facebook that stirred controversy after it was unearthed by the Nas Region website early May.

In it, Lang labelled all the lawmakers who voted in favour of the controversial taxation of church restitution as “stinking, treasonous pigs” and “moral monsters” who ought to “be killed”.

The ODS member also identified Czech President Milos Zeman, who later signed the law into effect, as “a stupid, senile Bolshevik” and “second Hitler who must be cut like a swine”.

M. Lang later deleted his comments and apologized.

Chairman of the Civic Democrats Petr Fiala (pictured above) condemned his statement and called for the regional branch of the ODS to take appropriate action to avoid such incidents in the future.

But the Civic Democrats faced growing criticism and mounting calls to take more drastic measures as observers pointed out that, several weeks after the controversy, M. Lang was still a member of the ODS.